


Distant Lands

by greenshi



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Crossover, Gen, Light Angst, idk man i just really love escape from the bloodkeep, same trauma! same trauma!, what else do i tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:55:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22748914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenshi/pseuds/greenshi
Summary: Adaine has questions. Efink can answer some of them.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 64





	Distant Lands

Efink stared at the piles and piles of papers on her desk, tired and confused and deeply, deeply regretting her decisions. She had God knows how many things to grade on a subject she knew very little about with less than an hour to spare before lunch hour finished and all those brats returned to class. She silently cursed her friends for coming up with the bright idea of disguising as teachers in this unknown land, and then cursed herself for going along with such an obviously stupid plan. Who the hell even is Aguefort? She’ll kill him, she swears it.

“...Ms. Murderdeath?”

There's a quiet knock on the door, followed by a voice that’s not much louder. One of the kids stands at the door, looking at Efink expectantly. She stifled a sigh before putting on her best customer service voice. 

“Yes? Do you need something?”

The girl awkwardly shuffles into the classroom, closing the door behind her. She approached the desk, placing the textbook there and pointing at one of the passages the class had been instructed to read. 

“I was just wondering about this portion, where it talks about the Council of Chosen? Specifically the part on Calesir Rockboot and why they were accepted into the Council in the first place?” she explained, turning the book around so that Efink could get a better look at it. She stared at the page for a moment, reading over the section, before becoming confused herself. She had no idea who these people were or what they were doing or why the hell she was in this position in the first place. 

“I...Well...It’s all quite simple, you see, you just need to…” she stuttered, trying to come up with something, anything to say. She gave a glance towards the girl and just saw her standing there, face completely neutral. 

“...I’m sorry to say but, as I am just a substitute, I don’t really know much about the subject. Maybe you can go ask one of the other teachers?” she finally said. The girl’s face fell slightly. 

“Oh. Well, thank you anyway.” 

She went to grab her textbook, and in that moment, Efink saw the girl’s hands were shaking. She watched as she went to leave, and against her better judgement, she spoke up.

“Before you go, are you...Uh, what was your name again?” she asked. The girl stopped and turned around.

“I’m Adaine. Why?”

Efink looked at Adaine, then at her stacks of papers, then back again. She knew that if it became obvious that she wasn’t really a substitute, all of their covers would be blown. However…

“Come take a seat.”

Adaine looked surprised, but complied. She dragged a spare chair from the corner of the room over to the desk, sitting with the textbook resting on her lap. 

“Adaine, I’ll be blunt with you. Are you okay?” Efink asked, looking the girl over. 

“I’m...Yes, I’m fine.” she answered stiffly, looking down at the text.

“I know you’re lying, dear. I have a keen ear for that kind of thing. Now, be honest with me, what’s going on?”

Adaine didn’t answer for a moment, instead tightening her grip on the text and clenching her jaw. 

“...It’s...It’s stupid, you don’t need to worry about it.” she muttered. 

“If it’s actually stupid or not will be up to me. Now, spit it out.” Efink said, voice a bit more stern. Adaine paused before letting out a breath.

“Okay, fine. I’m just...I’m having some issues with this subject, and my grades are slipping, and…” Adaine stopped, furrowing her eyebrows. “And even though they’re gone, I’m still worried over their approval, and it’s dumb, but I can’t help it, and-”

“Who’s approval?” Efink interrupted. 

“My...My parents. Which is stupid, because they left town months ago, and they don’t care about my grades or anything anymore, so I shouldn’t be freaking out and yet...I…”

Adaine gripped the textbook harder, turning her knuckles white. She stared down at it, scowling and angry and shaking again.

“...Stop me if I’m overstepping, but your parents...left?” Efink asked. 

“During the whole Kalvaxus thing, they left for Fallinel and just...forgot about me, I guess. It makes sense, they never really…” she trailed off, anger fleeting and being replaced with sadness.

“...They didn’t care.” Efink finished. She felt her face fall as Adaine just nodded. 

“They never cared, not about me. They cared about their image, and they cared about my sister, but never me. Even…”

A few small tears fall on to the text as Adaine folds in to herself more and more, shaking her head and refusing to look at Efink still. 

“I’ve almost died on multiple occasions, became the Elven Oracle, and spent months in jail, and yet, nothing! They never came to check on me, never made sure I was okay, never told me anything! I hate them so much! And even though they’re finally gone, it still feels like they’re always watching for when I mess up, for when I step out of line, for when I fail, so that they can mock me again. I hate them so, so much.” 

Adaine still tried to hold herself together, though that control was slipping. Efink’s heart dropped. She reached out a hand, took Adaine’s chin and lifted her head. Efink stared at the crying girl, who looked all too familiar, before speaking. 

“...Kill them.”

Adaine practically flew back, grabbing the textbook and hugging it against her chest like a shield. The crying stopped, though now it had been replaced with a look of terror.

“What!” she yelled. Efink then remembered that, oh yeah, this is a high school and not The Bloodkeep. Teachers probably don’t suggest parricide to their students, at least not right away.

“Uh! By which I mean to say, kill the version of them in your mind! Yeah!” Efink backpedaled, giving a too wide smile. Adaine didn’t look convinced. 

“...What?” she said again.

Efink frowned and checked the clock. She still had some time, so it would probably be okay for her to get into it right now.

“Okay, so, I may have overreacted. It’s just that, well, I know what you’re going through all too well.”

Adaine blinked, the fear leaving her face. In its place was curiosity as she put the textbook back down. 

“You do?”

“Yes. My father was a distant man, you see. He was called “The Calm” which sounds fine, but he was calm about literally everything, including when I ran away from home, married some man I found, and joined the dark army.” she explained. Adaine looked a bit concerned at the “dark army” part, but she stayed quiet. “He didn’t care about any of my accomplishments or failures, only about his own self righteous goodness. He was, and pardon my language, a dick.”

“And did you...kill him?”

“Well, I mean, yes, of course.”

Adaine looked a tad uncomfortable, but not as much as Efink would have expected. 

“And...did that help? Did it...make you happy?”

Efink paused. 

“I...I guess. It was extremely satisfying, don’t get me wrong, but also…” she leaned forward slightly, thinking her next words through very carefully. “That feeling, that feeling of being watched and judged even after they’re long gone, it doesn’t go away. Even nowadays, I can still feel his indifference, and I still sometimes do things in the hope that I’ll finally impress him.”

“So, it never goes away then?” Adaine asked, sadness returning. Efink shook her head.

“I never said that. While the damn thing sticks around longer than you’d like, it will leave one day. Tell me, Adaine, who are you staying with?”

“With the guidance counselor. Me and him...we owe each other quite a lot.”

“And do you have friends, Adaine?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty close to my adventuring party. Hell, one of them even lives with us, since her parents kicked her out.”

Efink smiled.

“Those people are where you’ll find the power to move on. I had help from my dearest friends, and I became a much stronger and better person because of it. Hold those kinds of people close, Adaine. The voices of those around you have a knack for drowning out the voices of those who have left.”

Adaine smirked. 

“If Professor Aguefort heard you talking about that “power of friendship” stuff, he’d kill you.” she joked.

“I’d like to see him try.”

Adaine laughed probably a little too loud and a little too hard, but Efink could tell it was genuine. 

“Thank you, Ms. Murderdeath. I...I really needed that.”

“Please, call me Efink.”

“Alright, Efink...Is that knife spelled backwards?”

Efink’s eyes lit up.

“It is! Do you like it? I picked it myself.”

Adaine had a strange expression as she shrugged.

“If you like it, then so do I.”

An odd sound came from Adaine’s pocket. She pulled out a crystal and stared at it for a second. 

“I’m sorry, I need to go. My friends need me for something.”

“Go right ahead.”

With a final smile, Adaine left the room. Efink was a bit confused as to how a noisy rock could communicate that her friends needed her, but whatever. This was a strange world with strange rules, so she might as well just go with it. 

As Efink got back to grading papers, she felt a bit better. She still didn’t love the situation she was in, but helping that young girl filled her with a bit of pride. Through that pride and the heaps of work in front of her, she didn’t even notice that Adaine had left her textbook behind.


End file.
